More often than not, the 69-year-old Thunderbolt resident prefers an unassuming profile, which even his wardrobe verifies. He’s most comfortable in an open-collared Oxford, jeans and deck shoes.

Hardly the type, in other words, to want to mix it up with the Inside Beltway D.C. crowd.

But sometimes, frustration gets the better of any man.

And right now, frustration has a hold of David Crenshaw.

So much so that he’s determined to find in-roads into the halls of Congress. He thinks he’s found an economic solution that won’t require government spending and will rapidly create jobs. Neither Congress nor the Obama administration, he believes, is making any real effort to get people back to work and ease the mushrooming federal deficit.

He’s never tried to direct the nation’s progress, but as he watched political coverage day after day, he became convinced he had to try.

“What they’re doing does not create jobs,” he said. “I have the experience which gives me the knowledge to frustrate me when I see what they’re doing.”

Lack of stimulus

Crenshaw has experience in multiple arenas. He is the owner and managing partner of International Dunnage, a company that provides packaging solutions for international shipping. Operations are based in Istanbul, Turkey; Canada; Europe and the U.S. He has more than 24 years in senior management for companies with annual budgets of $500 million and 2,000 employees.

His service as a Thunderbolt Town Council member, though small in scale comparatively, also allows him some insight to the layers of government involved in a federal stimulus.

“The stimulus package, if it was applied correctly, would have created a lot of jobs,” Crenshaw said. “But it got very political.”

Thunderbolt had its own project for a new drinking well all set to go, including all the engineering and permitting. All that was needed was a final signature on a contract. It never happened.

“We even lobbied our state representatives in Atlanta,” he said. “It fell into a big, dark hole.”

That helped confirm his belief that private industry can decide better where to direct stimulus efforts.

The Crenshaw plan

He would spur construction by allowing businesses to cut depreciation on real property from 39 years to 10. As an incentive, companies would be allowed a two-year window to get the depreciation, and construction would have to finish in five years.

Crenshaw has reviewed housing starts, analyzed tax structures, and examined employment data. He didn’t include any spending generated or profits earned from the uses of new hotels, retail shops or factories to keep his numbers conservative.

He estimates that the 10-year cumulative effect on $100 million of projects would generate about $1.8 billion in payroll with $225 million in generated taxes on the federal level and another $90 million on the state level.

An advantage of the plan, he said, is that it would renew activity in the hard-hit housing and construction sectors.

David Barker, a former Federal Reserve economist and professor of economics and real estate at the University of Chicago, reviewed Crenshaw’s plan.

He shares his worries about the economy. In his book, “Welcome to Free America,” Barker works from the premise that the U.S. government has collapsed. The year is 2057 and the country is in turmoil but does right itself through free market recovery.

Crenshaw’s idea is similar to rapid depreciation offered as far back as the Reagan administration, Barker said. He calls it “an idea worth thinking about,” but also cautions there are hidden complications. Spurring development in construction can pull resources from other parts of the economy, and while lending increases, it also can result in a glut of unnecessary projects, which could lead to plummeting real estate values.

Crenshaw had one other economist review his paper, which also brought tepid response. He is undeterred.

“I know what makes business go,” he said. “I know what makes them invest. I am 100 percent positive that this will trigger the creation of a lot of projects that will create jobs at no cost to the government.”

He is hoping his proposal gains traction. He met last week with U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Savannah and is talking with U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah.

“All I need to do is keep pressing it,” he said. “I’d like to see a groundswell of support and see both political parties embrace it.”